“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.”

And

“It is not down in any map; true places never are.”

And

“Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”

And

“I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.”

And

“There are some persons in this world, who, unable to give better proof of being wise, take a strange delight in showing what they think they have sagaciously read in mankind by uncharitable suspicions of them.”

And

“There is no dignity in wickedness, whether in purple or rags; and hell is a democracy of devils, where all are equals.”

And

“There are times when even the most potent governor must wink at transgression, in order to preserve the laws inviolate for the future.”

And

“Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?”

And

“Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.”

And

“It is impossible to talk or to write without apparently throwing oneself helplessly open.”

And

“To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.”

And

“There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.”

“Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.”

And

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

And

“Heaven have mercy on us all – Presbyterians and Pagans alike – for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.”

And

“He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great.”

And

“There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.”

And

“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke.”

And

“Truth is the silliest thing under the sun. Try to get a living by the Truth and go to the Soup Societies. Heavens! Let any clergyman try to preach the Truth from its very stronghold, the pulpit, and they would ride him out of his church on his own pulpit bannister.”

And

“They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.”

And

“Know, thou, that the lines that live are turned out of a furrowed brow.”

And

“At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect.”

And

“In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.”

And

“Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.”

And

“To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment.”

And

“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it.”

And

“Yet habit – strange thing! What cannot habit accomplish?”

And

“A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.”

And

“There is sorrow in the world, but goodness too; and goodness that is not greenness, either, no more than sorrow is.”

And

“Whatever fortune brings, don’t be afraid of doing things.”

And

“He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.”

And

“Truth is in things, and not in words.”

And

“Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.”

And

“There is all of the difference in the world between paying and being paid.”

And

“There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.”

And

“There is something wrong about the man who wants help. There is somewhere a deep defect, a want, in brief, a need, a crying need, somewhere about that man.”

And

“Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, – for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it – not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation.”

And

“Toil is man’s allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that’s more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.”

And

“Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring. Thus with seamen: he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly.”

And

“We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people — the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world.”

And

“It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.”

And

“It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.”

And

“I have no objection to any person’s religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other person, because that other person don’t believe it also. But when a man’s religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and, in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and argue the point with him.”

And

“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.”

And

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.”

And

“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”

And

“I try all things, I achieve what I can.”

And

“Ignorance is the parent of fear.”

And

“Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head.”

And

“All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.”